1. Looking back at your preliminary
task, what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to
the full product?
2. I believe the main progression from my preliminary is my ability to use software and
different technologies and my understanding of how a magazine is created and the
features and conventions that make magazines appealing to and audience.
Firstly I have hugely developed my technical skills by using software such as Photoshop.
During my preliminary my knowledge of it was basic and very limited to the very simple
elements of editing such as being able to roughly cut out and add effects to photos. It has
gradually progressed throughout the production of my product and after my final draft I
believe I have a much more in depth understanding of the tools and affects you can create
using this programme. I feel that in comparison to my prelim, the editing and precision of
the magazine is of a much higher standard, showing my improvement throughout the
course. For example, my ability to contrast and brighten things to produce higher quality
photos has improved as well as my ability to cover blemishes. I also am much more
efficient; getting simple tasks such as editing objects and layers completed quickly.
3. My understanding and knowledge of magazines has drastically improved. The knowledge
was mainly gained during the research (particularly during analysis of magazines) as i was
learning how magazines appeal to an audience and the techniques, conventions and
features they use, such as the rule of three and the use of the golden spiral for
photographs. I learnt how everything down to the positioning of certain things on the page
was designed to be aesthetically pleasing and appeal to the target audience. However my
understanding grew more during the planning and production of my final draft as it
required me to use the knowledge effectively and to create my own following the
conventions and techniques. A key example of this I feel is the comparisons of my contents
pages. The preliminary magazine was very brief and lacked much use as a contents page.
There was very little information of what the magazine contained and the pictures lack any
versatility and clearly do not fit together. Contrastingly, my final contents page features an
in depth contents, detailing exactly what we can expect from the magazine.